From BruceR: Still Warmaster just new army, Vampire Counts (257 points)

It's been in the deep freeze here in the North US so easy to stay inside and paint.  I continued on with my Warmaster  project/obsession with a new army.  

Over the summer I had painted a box of Wargames Atlantic Orcs and tried out ordering 10mm 3d prints from etsy.  More Orcs so an army was formed.  I took off the shelf a Byzantine army I had painted while deployed in 2008, which had never found an opponent.  My empire force was born.  A gaming compadre flew in before Xmas and we played no less than 5 Warmaster games and the crew was hooked.  I maybe somewhat of a driving force with our crew and why not.  Now four others have launched armies, but who knows how long before they will be ready, so....

I ordered a Vampire Counts 1000-point army to add to my Orcs for flavor.  I usually seem to play good or at least not evil forces so I thought I would give them a shot being a couple of the mates have used undead when we had played WHFB.  

Who doesn't need an evil vampire lord or lady terrorizing the villages and hamlets of the empire.  

Wait!

That's more like it.

I set to work on one unit, then another, then another, .....Oh well.  I Have 80% of the 1000-point force done.

The force requires two skeleton units and two zombie units.  So, these were done first.

Lots of speed paints and a few highlights.  Grey base coat.  Mix of washes for the bone and then blue speed paint for clothes and shields.  

Skeleton Regiment #1

Skeleton Regiment #2

On to the Zombies.  I tried to hit the flesh with a light green color (dead flesh).  Some white highlight were bone shows.  Next in with differing colors for clothes/rags.  A wash and done.

Brains!

Zombie Regiment #1 command stand

Zombie Regiment #2 Command Stand

Madness continued and on to the ghouls.  Decided a very lighter flesh was what I wanted and already used green for the zombies.  Once they were white primed, I hit them with speed paint light flesh. Decided they needed something else and went for some blood on hands and faces.  Not really into gore, yet they needed something and being wee figures doesn't really show unless you zoom into them.  Scraps of clothes hit and done.  The ghouls are not undead in Warmaster so can initiative charge, unlike the other undead forces.  Plus, they have 4 attacks per stand.

Ghouls

Next up was the ethereal host.  Terror causing phantasms.  These also ignore benefits when attacking defensive positions.  These might be cheating to claim points for painting.  Primed them white and hit them with speed paint (plasmatic bolt-army  painter).  Based them and done.

Ethereal Host

 

I next started the Grave Guard.  Armored skeletons, as medium infantry.  These I primed black and started by giving them a light brown dry brush to bring out detail.  Next highlighting the bone areas.  Red cloaks and armor.  I left the shields black with the light brown highlight and hit the skulls embossed on the shields.  

The "Mortis" Grave Guard

To control these walking dead the army came with a number of character figures.  I choose a vampiress and a necromancer.  

The vampire is mounted and really is a cool looking figure.  Some red, some black, some white skin and tried for a red lip.  Very fun.

To assist the general is the necromancer.  I still am in awe of 3d sculpts.  This guy is raising skeletons and you barely see the magic smoke leading to a hand coming out of the dirt.

These shambling dead took the field this weekend past.  A friend, who played undead in WHFB years ago, used them and almost wiped them out to a man/undead.  They have been blooded or unblooded.  Not sure.

The undead horde.

Before the game Sunday I did need another hero for the forces of good and hit this Witch Hunter before the game.

Deiter Von Helmutstein

Whew, that's it for me this week.  Very productive and the game was great with 5 of us playing with around 3000 points of baddies attacking a village defended by about 2300 points of humans.  Humans won as the undead and orcs were unable to destroy most of the village and the citadel.  Fun stuff.

21 stands of 12x 10mm undead @ 1pt      = 252 pts

 2 characters on foot @ 1pt                        =    2 pts

 1 character mounted @ 3 pts                    =    3 pts 

Total                                                             257 pts

Skull dual entry (108 skeletons + 24 skull emblems and assorted skulls) Total 132.

I have been honored with skull of the week earlier so feel obligated to join.  

I hope you enjoy.  Thanks to everybody once again.  I do believe this group helps support the hobby and at times us personally.  I would be fooling myself if I didn't think hitting my hobby desk helped me to pull away from the news and the absolute S#&t show we have been subjected to in the past week.  

So, Thanks.  Be well and safe.

Bruce

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Sylvain: There is so much details in your tiny figurines that it blows my mind. Your variations in color, nicely done, bring a level of realism to your fantasy miniatures. I'm sure your army must be quite the attraction among your gaming group and most certainly a "trigger" for collecting armies. I adjusted the points because one of your heroes is mounted. Bravo!

 

 

  

From RobertT: 15mm Vehicles for Burma (30 points)

 Gosh there was a longer hiatus between posting than I thought.  Carrying on with the odds and ends in Burma 1944.  Again Peter Pig 15mm, but this time the carriers and jeep to transport the Sikh MG team that I finished last time.  Peter Pig produced these vehicles with headless drivers and a selecion of heads depending on what one wants.  This is quite a neat idea until one comes to glue them in place.  My poor Sikh passengers look like they have had a very rough night, thanks to my seven thumbs.  Why is it that I can glue things to my fingers far easier than I can glue them where I want them to go?

Without further ado here are two carriers with crew and their trusty Vickers MG, plus a jeep for the important people, the ones who point and have binoculars.

Three vehicles in 15mm 8 points each = 24 points.

 

I placed them on a bridge and put some log bridges in shot as well purely because I told Tamsin I would, I am not including them for points.  I say "in shot", I am still getting the hang of photographing things.  This competition is actually making me think about things like lighting and stuff.

I also painted some objective markers which i am going to count as figures rather than terrain.  They are Peter Pig 15mm parachute cannisters and were easy to paint and are quite small (I have included a figure for scale) but can still be fought over.  the background is a Cry Havoc map from the olden times.  I thought it looked better than a paint splattered turntable, but I am not 100% convinced.

3 pieces x 2 points each = 6 points for a grand total of 30.

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Sylvain: Fabulous work on these British vehicles! The paint job and the basing are top notch. Now, about those terrain pieces... I guess it would be unfair to have you create a new post for the Terrain Czar, Lord Byron. I will grant you 30 points total. Bravo!

 

From PeterD: USNavy 1898 (20 points)

Over the last couple of Challenges, I've been putting together the fleets for the Spanish American War in the hopes of one day doing a campaign.  This was inspired by a visit to Admiral Deweys' USS Olympia in Philly.

She pretty much sells the Pre-Dreadnought period for me.

I am down to filling in the gaps stage, and so here's some US Navy ships that were left in the lead pile.  These are all 1:2400 scale by Tumbling Dice, who do a nice range of well detailed ships for this era.

First up some heavies, the Battleship USS Massachusetts and the Monitors USS Terror and USS Amphitrite.  Massachusetts was a first rate man of war, but missed the big action at Santiago as she was off coaling at the time.  The monitors were pretty much left overs for the USN, they were laid down in 1874 but not completed until twenty years later.  Plus they had to be finessed past a miserly congress as being rebuilds of earlier Civil War era monitors.  They were slow, outdated and very poor sea boats, but they took part in the Spanish American War.  Both ships took part in the Bombardment of San Juan Puerto Rico, but had to be towed there by more modern ships.  They then were used to blockade Cuban ports.  They were miserable ships to work on, but least their crews didn't have to endure the crossings of the Pacific that two sister ships took.

USS Monadnock crossing the Pacific.  No need to swab the barf off the quarterdeck, the Pacific will take care of that.

The early US battleships were also low freeboard but not as low as the monitors.

Next up the Montgomery class cruisers USS Detroit and USS Marblehead and the Armed Merchant Cruiser USS St Paul.  The Montgomerys were built as peace cruisers, meant to police the Caribbean and show the flag.  They had a light armament and only a thin armoured deck, but had roomy accommodations for long cruises.  All three served in the SAW, Detroit being at the bombardment of San Juan and Marblehead bombarding Cuba and taking part in the capture of Guantanamo Bay. The USS St Paul was a trans-Atlantic liner taken over and armed by the US Navy and was commanded by Captain Sigsbee, previously of the ill fated USS Maine.   She was on blockade duty off Cuba and Puerto Rico and fought a duel with a Spanish destroyer off San Juan. 

While sisters, the Columbia had four funnels and the Minneapolis had two.  They were originally designed with three each, so I wonder if it was a delivery SNAFU.

Finally three protected cruisers.  The sisters USS Columbia and USS Minneapolis were built as commerce raiders and designed to look like passenger liners.  They were very fast, and had decent protection but were very lightly armed to maximize speed and range.  They became white elephants when the US Navy changed its role from that of wolf, preying on other nations (i.e. British) shipping to sheep dog controlling the sea lanes and protecting US shipping.  The USS New Orleans was an Elswick cruiser purchased from the builders just before the SAW.  Originally Brazil ordered a class of four cruisers, but only received one.  They sold one to the Chileans and the US snapped up the other two to keep them out of Spanish hands.  Only the New Orleans was ready in time for the war, but she was a fine ship and had an active war. 

That is nine 1:2400 scale ships for 18 points.  I hope to get increase that total over the 25 point squirrel threshold in the net couple of weeks.

 

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Sylvain: Very impressive description and very impressive painted miniatures! The information you provide make these ships feel more real. I like your oversized flags and I will give you 2 bonus points for that for a total of 20 points. Bravo!